The present invention relates to a color barcode producing method and apparatus, a color barcode reading method and apparatus and a color barcode reproducing method and apparatus.
A black and white barcode is very widely used for recording digital information which is readable by an apparatus in a small space on a printed matter. However, such black and white barcode has some problems. One of the problems is that it is difficult to record information including large data such as a long document or a picture.
Recently, to solve such problem, a color barcode using several colors is developed. The color barcode can record much more information than the black and white barcode because while the black and white barcode records information by binary recording, the color barcode using several colors can record information by multivalued recording.
However, even if user uses the color barcode, there are some problems yet. The problem is that the color barcode is easy to loss its integrity and authenticity in printing and copy generation due to i) different color management system of different apparatus, ii) different printer, iii) unstable color characteristic of printer itself, iv) scanner precision, v) degradation of color on a printed matter with time and vi) degradation in copy generation, and so on.